The last mainstage show of the season, Intimate Apparel, will be performed in the Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater for two weeks.
Themes like love and longing are timeless, whether they are found in everyday modern life or a 1905 seamstress shop.
That, at least, is the premise posed in the mainstage production Intimate Apparel. The play, written by Lynn Nottage, will run for two weeks in the Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater in Kantner Hall.
Set in 1905, the drama tells the story of Esther, a black seamstress who sews lingerie for high-society New Yorkers, and the intimate relationships she keeps.
“It is a deep play about the longing for love and who are we allowed to love when it comes to who we are versus who someone else is and that, in this play, includes race, class, status, (and) nationality,” director Shelley Delaney, an associate professor of theater, said.
Kihresha Redmond, a senior studying theater performance who plays Esther, has been in dramas, comedies and crossovers of both, but said dramas like Intimate Apparel are her “wheelhouse.”
“I think the fun part about drama is that ... it’s like exploring somebody’s soul. You get to express a lot of different parts of that. Whereas sometimes in comedies … you’re not exploring things on a deeper level,” she said. “You’re hitting the punch lines and that’s the most important thing.”
Delaney said her production’s intention aligned with that of Nottage’s.
“I know one of the playwright’s intentions was the idea of shining light on people who history doesn’t shine light on,” Delaney said. “This is a play about the really complex, rich, funny, fully-alive lives of people that have just disappeared from history. … Every life is worth examining ... and this play takes the time to look at six lives that might not otherwise be looked at.”
Of the six actors in the show, four are senior undergraduate women. The two male characters are played by first-year graduate actors.
“Part of my interest in this play from the very beginning was that we have a strong cast of senior BFA actors and more women in the cast than men. And there were unusually strong roles for women in this play,” Delaney said, who noted that women outnumber men greatly in the Division of Theater.
Though there are only six actors in the cast, Delaney said Intimate Apparel is one of the most challenging shows she’s ever directed due to the complexity and depth of the writing and characters.
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“(Mainstage shows are) an assignment (faculty members) love because it extends the classroom lessons we’re working on with our actors into performance and production,” Delaney said.
Redmond, too, is excited to apply what she’s learned in classes to her final stage performance before graduation.
She said Intimate Apparel is a wonderful show to be ending on because of what it offers the audience.
“I feel like there is something for everyone, no matter if it’s race, religion, the feeling of being alone, finding love, age, … being from a different place, coming to someplace new, (or) not feeling like you fit in,” she said.
Delaney said what’s most exciting for an audience are the similarities to the present that can be found in a very different time.
“I love telling stories and I think it’s exciting to find your story in other people,” Redmond said.
@erindavoran
